Work to improve Pagham's '˜eyesore' shopping area

Parish councillors intend to smarten up The Parade in the coming year.

Ian Balch told Tuesday’s annual electors’ meeting: “The Parade is really a bit of an eyesore and has been for some years now.

“There are constraints as to what we can do because it is landlord owned rather than publicly owned.

“But we have come to an agreement with the landlord that we can do some palliative works there.”

He said the improvements were likely to include repainting the planters, clearing out dead and overgrown shrubs and clean the seats.

“It will not involve changing the groundworks because we can’t do that,” he stated.

He hoped the work could be carried out in the coming year.

“If we can do that, it will lift the area back up again and improve the streetscape,” he said.

“We can do these things without having to spend a lot of money and there are grants available to help us.”

The parish council has been anxious for several years to boost The Parade with its mix of mainly locally owned businesses.

The range of outlets includes a newsagent, an optician, an estate agent, a cafe and a fish and chip shop.